People's Democracy

         Charter Of Demands

• Detoxification of School Education:  

1. The textbooks brought out by the NCERT during 2002-04 should be de-prescribed by the CBSE and their printing and distribution should be immediately stopped. The NCERT’s National Curriculum Framework for School Education (2000) and the syllabi prepared during 2001-04 should be replaced by an alternative that is in keeping with the secular egalitarian and pluralistic values of our constitution.

2. All NCERT textbooks prescribed by the CBSE until the academic year 2001-02 should be restored without modification and with effect from the current academic year. There should not be any attempt to tamper with these books or to replace them with academically inferior alternatives.

• Withdraw obscurantist and retrograde courses like Jyotirvigyan and Pourohitya that go against the spirit of rationalism and scientific enquiry. All courses in higher education introduced by the NDA government should be thoroughly reviewed.

• Remove all communally tainted individuals from positions of responsibility in educational and research institutions. Strengthen the professional, autonomous and secular character of bodies such as UGC, NCERT, ICSSR, ICHR, AICTE, India Institute of Advanced Studies, etc.

• Restore, restructure and reconstitute the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) in order to ensure that educational policy-making takes place within the federal framework of our Constitution. Make CABE a statutory body with an appropriate composition.

• Increase public spending on education: It is impossible to build up a democratic and secular education system that is not in the main publicly funded. With this perspective we demand that:

1. Government spen-ding on education must be increased to 6 per cent of the GDP and 10 per cent of the union budget.

2. All allocation of the additional revenues generated through the education cess must be made public at the earliest.

• Enact Central legislation to redress the situation arising from the Supreme Court’s judgement in the TMA Pai case, which would allow state governments to regulate private unaided professional institutions. Among other things this legislation must provide that:

1. All admissions to private unaided professional institutions should be through a common Entrance Test conducted by the government.

2. The government should have powers to prescribe the maximum fees chargeable by these institutions.

3. Constitutional provision for 22.5 per cent reservation for SC/ST students as well as other provisions for representation of students from deprived sections should be upheld in private institutions.

• Withdraw the UGC’s proposed ‘Model Act for Universities. Also the process of evaluation and accreditation of universities that is presently being carried out by the NAC should be thoroughly revised to make it democratic and transparent and fund allocation to institutions should not be linked to the accreditation process.

• Withdraw the Private Universities Bill, which seeks to open up the higher education sector of our country for domestic and foreign capitalists. The previous government had also allowed many private universities to be set up through the back door by granting them the status of ‘deemed universities.’ The recognition granted arbitrarily to such institutions must be immediately withdrawn and norms should be laid down for the conferring of ‘deemed university’ status to ensure that this provision is not misused. These norms as well as the AICTE norms for professional institutions must be strictly enforced. The entry of multinational educational institutions in our country through franchises and tie-up must be immediately stopped.

• Modify the 85th Amendment to the Constitution:     

1. The present Amendment makes it the duty of parents/guardians to provide education to their wards. Modify it to reflect the Constitutional directive, which requires the State, rather than parents/ guardians, to provide free and compulsory primary education to all children.

2. Provide the right to free early childhood care and education to children up to 6 years of age who are not covered by the Amendment in its present form.

3. Ensure that the provisions of the Act to not provide scope for the spread of sectarian and private educational institutions.

• Take immediate steps to upgrade the quality of technical education

• Restore and guarantee the autonomy of all institutions of higher and professional education including Universities, IITs and IIMs. Revise the fee structure of these institutions to ensure that they are accessible to students from deprived sections of society.

• Ensure the democratic rights of the student community: Students’ Union elections must be held regularly in all colleges and universities. Elected representatives of students and faculty must be made part of the decision- making process at all levels.

• Implement the SC's guidelines against sexual harassment

• Recognise the right to education and employment as fundamental rights: The fundamental right to life enshrined in our Constitution can have meaning only if every citizen is able to lead a life free of want and is provided equal opportunity to develop her abilities to the greatest extent possible. In light of this, we demand that the Constitution be amended to make the Right to Education and the Right to Employment a fundamental right of all citizens. This should be accompanied by suitable legislation to provide a suitable framework for the enforcement of these rights and policies for providing jobs and education for all.